Someone must have turned America upside down because this country makes no sense.
President Joe Biden’s terrible performance in last week’s debate reinforced concerns about his age and mental acuity. This is true, and it has Democrats asking themselves fair and serious questions about the best path forward.
That makes sense.
This is a mature, reasonable response, similar to the reaction you would expect from a mature, reasonable person if, to take a random example, a presidential candidate from one political party was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and found liable for sexual assault and defamation.
Democrats say: “Our candidate is old, he struggled in prime-time debates, was sometimes incoherent and generally sounded weak. Should we replace him? How do we restore voters’ trust?”
Meanwhile, Republicans are saying: “Our candidate is also elderly, a convicted felon who incited insurrection, continues to deny the results of the last Presidential election, and frequently gives barely comprehensible rally speeches about boats and sharks and batteries. Who cares? Trump 2024!!”
Pundits are clamoring for Biden to go. Why aren’t the same voices being heard for Trump?
A huge number of pundits and commentators across the political spectrum have made the clear decision that Biden must be replaced on the Democratic slate. He has to go. This is it.
The day after the debate, The New York Times editorial board ran a headline stating that “to serve his country, President Biden should drop out of the race.”
The editors of The New Yorker magazine called on Biden to resign.
The editorial board of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a piece under the headline, “It’s time for Biden to pass the baton.”
What about Trump’s lies?Biden’s disastrous debate performance creates the illusion of Trump’s competence. It’s all a lie.
All of this — from opinion speculators and political prognosticators on platforms big and small — would be fine and make perfect sense… if the person representing the Republican Party in this election wasn’t a literal felon.
Trump is far worse than being “old”: he is a convicted felon.
As a country, do we look at Trump and say, “Well, he’s been convicted of crimes and indicted on many other counts, including for allegedly hiding some of our nation’s most secret documents in a bathroom at a golf resort, and he routinely demonizes immigrants, pits Americans against each other, and paints those who disagree with him as “vermin” or worse… but we don’t need to ask him to step down and stop trying to run for president!”
Where is the Times editorial lambasting Republicans for having the audacity to suggest that a man like Trump is fit to be commander in chief?
As members of the public discussed the controversy at a weekend rally, Trump said, “They want electric planes. What happens if the sun doesn’t shine when you’re in the air? Well, I told you there would be problems. No. They want everything electric. They want electric boats. The problem with boats is they don’t float, because the batteries are too heavy and the boat sinks. They say we don’t care, we want them anyway.”
what?
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday clarified the scope of presidential immunity for “official business” simply because President Trump has been repeatedly charged with crimes allegedly committed while in office.
But while liberal commentators and political strategists are listing potential replacements for Biden, no Republican pundit or adviser is saying that for the sake of the country and the party, Trump needs to step aside and let Nikki Haley run.
This is not a defense of Biden, but a call for common sense.
I am not here to defend Biden. I fully understand the concerns that arose after last week’s debate. And contrary to the right-wing caricatures of liberal columnists, I have no loyalty to Biden. I don’t have Biden posters in my room, and if Biden were to step down, I would respect that and support whoever the Democrats nominate against Trump.
I don’t like any political candidate, but I fear Trump and the chaos and cruelty he will bring to another presidential term.
Trump’s debate performance:The Republican Party deserves the Trump we saw in the debates, and unfortunately, it won’t last.
So I hear the frustrations about Biden, and I understand the issues related to age, and I welcome the debate about what’s best for the Democratic Party and the country, but I call all of it total bullshit, because somehow we live in a timeline where “this guy is old” is a much bigger issue than “this guy is a cruel con man and clearly crazy.”
You can’t question Trump’s competence while also questioning Biden’s.
What is the thinking here? “Well, Biden might not be able to handle the presidency, so we might as well give it to an accused rapist in court”?
If the mindset of this country is so out of whack that a troubling debate performance by a man who accomplished so much as president is a bigger problem than all the crazy things Trump has done and will continue to do (picture me waving my hands vigorously in all directions), then we are right, we are screwed.
We cannot function in a society that holds an ordinary politician like Biden to a much higher standard than an extraordinary politician like Trump.
Unless they are shouting equally loudly to get rid of Trump, their calls for Biden to go cannot be taken seriously.
America needs to have a long, hard conversation with itself. Something is wrong.
As for Biden, I don’t know what the answer is. That’s something others, and Biden himself, have to work out.
But I know representatives from other parties have done much worse than showing off their age in a debate. Much worse.
And the screaming is not worth it. Not worth it at all.
America, I don’t know what’s going on with you. Nothing you’re saying makes any sense.
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